Securing our garden

[PlanBea]

Looking for some advice.

Our neighbour has a dog, but they also have a visiting dog occasionally that leaps the fence between our properties. It's happened twice now and each time the dog is aggressive towards my DH who has been in the garden, and has taken at least 15 minutes each time for neighbour to notice the dog is missing.

Our gardens are on a slope away from the house, they have decking on their lower garden and furniture on this so the dog is able to jump that to get in to ours.

We asked the neighbors to rearrange the furniture or secure the fence as it's theirs, but they are up for sale and have said they won't do anything.

We have a 1 year old and I'm disabled, and I'm now incredibly worried the dog will jump the fence when I'm in the garden alone with our baby, or in the house with the patio doors open.

Should we just attach trellis to the fence where the dog jumps over? Neighbor is not interested in doing anything but it is their fence. For what it's worth, the front bit of the fence is actually ours, and they drilled their for sale sign into it (the estate agent attached it to their property, they moved it and we let it slide) so it doesn't seem like they care about who owns what.

Diagram should be attached, aerial view and view from our side

Yes - go ahead & do the trellis

Or better still, send an email, outlining your concerns, asking them not to have the dog over AND remove the sign from your fence. Copy it to the estate agents who will likely advise them not to start letting a neighbour dispute happen

Your neighbours sound like real jerks btw - who lets an aggressive dog jump into a neighbours garden, with a baby at that

They need to secure their garden for their dogs.

Its not up to them to decide whether they will do anything or not. Go to the council but mention to them that the dog's behaviour comes under the DDA (yes a garden can be a public place) and you are thinking about whether you need to contact the police. I say this as a long time dog owner and dog lover.

I agree! But they've told us on no uncertain terms that they won't. So I either keep my baby in the house all summer or come up with my own solution 😟

@BlooberryBiskits while I'd like to do that, I'd rather they sold up and moved on. While I don't want to fall out with the neighbors, my son's safety asap is my priority so if the consensus is attaching trellis rather than something more costly/complicated then I will go with that.

@godmum56 I love dogs, I'd happily have one if it wasn't for my mobility problems. Our other neighbours in all directions have dogs and we like the rest of them, even the noisy one! I'll look into the DDA, thank you

I'd screw trellis to their fence panels. Quick, cheap. If they have a problem with it then point out the dangerous dogs act. Your recorded correspondence and threaten to go to the council and raise a neighbour dispute with the estate agent. All with a smile. If they are still arsy about you fixing stuff to their fence then raise the fire sale sign that if it's fine for them, it must be fine for you.